Found Deceased IN - Nick Sams, 31, & Chrystal Reyes, 23, South Bend, 27 Dec 2014

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Crystal Reyes and Nick Sams
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South Bend Police Department asking for help in December missing persons case
SOUTH BEND - The South Bend Police Department is requesting public assistance in locating two missing people. A news release from the department said the missing people are Crystal Reyes, a 23-year-old woman, and Nick Sams, a 31-year-old man. The department said the disappearance is highly unusual for both people. Sams has family in the Chicago area and travels there regularly. The family said they have not had contact with either person and reported Sams missing through the Chicago Police Department. They were last seen leaving a South Bend residence on Pleasant Street in a 2009 silver/gray Jeep Commander Sport on December 27th.
http://www.fox28.com/story/27792989...ment-asking-for-help-in-unusual-disappearance

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This 2009 Jeep Commander is similar to the vehicle Sams and Reyes were last seen driving. (Photo/South Bend Police Department)
 
South Bend missing couple's families are speaking out
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -
South Bend Police are asking for the public's help for information on two missing adults.


Two mothers are speaking out, in a cry for help to hear anything about their missing daughter and son.

Crystal Reyes, 23-years old, and 31-year old Nick Sams were last seen in the late hours of December 27th on Pleasant Road in South Bend.

South Bend Police Department said all of their leads are now exhausted and now need the public's help in finding them.

Both Reyes' and Sams' mother's have posted missing persons signs all over South Bend and all the way up to Chicago, because in their hearts they say they know their kids did not just runaway.

“I just keep saying she's at work. They have no idea and keep saying she's taking too long,” said Dora Gonzalez, she is Crystal Reyes' mother.

It is a grandmother's excuse to her wondering grandchildren, ages two and four.

An answer to why their mommy has been gone for nearly two weeks.

“December 27th, they came over about 7pm for dinner,” said Gonzalez.

Both Reyes and her boyfriend, Nick Sams, went to dinner at Dora Gonzalez' house then traveled over to Pleasant Road to Sams' mom's house.

“We haven't seen or heard ever since,” said Gonzalez.
http://www.abc57.com/story/27793134/south-bend-couple-reported-missing
 
Update on South Bend missing couple
Crystal Reyes has been missing for over two months along with her boyfriend Nick Sams.

The couple was last seen on South Bend's west side near Pleasant street on December 27th .
ABC 57 news sat down with Crystal Reyes mother Dora Gonzalez, who says there is no way her daughter and Sams just ran away together.

She says now, as a grandmother, she is having a difficult time telling her grandchildren over and over the same story line.

"What do we tell them, we can't keep lying, we keep saying she is at work."

Reyes' two children ask for her almost every night.

"Two people just don't disappear and a whole vehicle."
http://www.abc57.com/story/28359451/update-on-south-bend-missing-couple
 
Rivers? Gorges? Ravines? An accident that hasn't been discovered yet?
 
When they cannot find the car, nor the people, I always think water, deep, steep ravine, just like you, CarmelEyesD.
 
http://www.abc57.com/story/28547196...-st-joseph-river-car-linked-to-missing-couple

A body was discovered inside an SUV pulled from the St. Joseph River Tuesday evening. Police are saying the vehicle is linked to a missing couple, and now Metro Homicide is involved...

The SUV was pulled out of the river with human remains inside, but police do not know who the remains belong to, and they aren't even identifiable as a man or a woman at this point in the investigation.

South Bend Police say it was all because of a training exercise between the Indiana DNR and South Bend Fire Department. They were down by the river when they discovered the SUV and pulled it up. The car was covered with mud and other filth from the river, and that's why they can't identify the human remains found inside.
 
http://www.southbendtribune.com/new...cle_9e7f33ec-cd95-11e4-979c-abecec8362af.html

Police Wednesday named Chrystal Reyes, a South Bend woman who has been missing since December, as a body found inside a Jeep that was pulled from the St. Joseph River this week. How she ended up at the bottom of the river, however, was still a mystery...

An autopsy was conducted Wednesday afternoon in Kalamazoo, Mich. Capt. Phil Trent, a South Bend police spokesman, said the autopsy revealed no visible injuries that suggested foul play, though toxicology tests were still pending. The cause and manner of death were undetermined...

Above all, he said, police would need to find Sams to fill in details about what may have led to Reyes' death. Police would likely conduct more searches of the river to explore any possibility that Sams also went into the water, he said.
 
http://www.wndu.com/home/headlines/...ed-out-of-the-St-Joseph-River--296652341.html

"It was in excess of 20 feet of water which, for the river here in St. Joe County, that's fairly deep," explained Cpt. Phil Trent of the South Bend Police Department, "If the vehicle went in at the access point, it takes a little bit of time before it gets enough water to sink fully. It was found a few feet off the shoreline in a deep channel"...

Reyes and Sams were both last seen leaving a residence on Pleasant St. in South Bend, less than a mile from where the couple's vehicle was found...

According to family members, both the psychic and investigator identified the access point on Northside Boulevard as a point of interest in the case. "We had been telling them to look there," Priscilla Reyes explained. "The detective said the water was too shallow for a car to fit there. That her car would be noticeable there. And it turns out we were right."
 
Oh my. I just read this story a couple of nights ago. I spent an hour or so trying to find good links on cars found in the St. Joe River. I'm local. Spent many days fishing and relaxing at that very spot. I live within blocks. There's more than one place to enter the river accidentally. I was out of town when they went missing and just read the story for the first time on WS. No one here is even talking about it (at least in my circles). So sad. RIP.

Wonder how they made it into the river. Icy conditions, operator error, car malfunction???
 
The deputy coroner says toxicology results are in on both Chrystal Reyes and Nick Sams. Both show no drugs in their systems and only a minimal amount of alcohol.

The official cause of death is drowning, but the coroner couldn't say how that happened. That part of the police investigation is still open.

Investigators want to determine how their jeep ended up in the St. Joe River.

http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/report-missing-south-bend-couple-drowned-in-river/33108172
 
December 2016:

Family of Chrystal Reyes seek damages from City of South Bend

http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/publicsafety/family-of-chrystal-reyes-seek-damages-from-city-of-south/article_0db104be-28bd-53cf-971a-41c462eb353e.html

The lawsuit was filed in September 2015. A summary judgment filed by the defense, which calls into question the merits of a suit and could prevent a case from going to trial, was scheduled for earlier this week with Judge David Chapleau in St. Joseph Superior Court 6, but the judgment was rescheduled for Dec. 22.

In the lawsuit, Reyes’ family claims there were no warnings alerting drivers in the area that a boat ramp was present.

They state there was inadequate lighting to provide a driver the opportunity to see the boat launch at night. And, the suit says, the city was negligent in failing to provide a barrier or gate that would prevent vehicles from driving into the river.

Daniel Pfeifer, who is representing the Reyes’ family, stands by the claim that the safety features were inadequate, “in fact nonexistent,” he said.

While there are no reported Indiana cases regarding the standard of design or maintenance of boat launches, according the city’s arguments in the case, the ramp where Reyes and Sams entered the river was “well within the norm.”

No other public boat launches have gates, and design guidelines do not suggest gates are appropriate, according to the city. It is also undisputed fact, according to the city, that no similar incident has occurred at that boat launch, or any other boat launch in the city.

Pfeifer called the city’s defense of no previous accidents a weak argument. Just because there’s a ticking time bomb that’s not going off, doesn’t mean it’s not a risk, he said.

Another point of contention in the lawsuit is exactly who was driving the vehicle when it entered the river. In its arguments, the city states that “it is inconceivable” a driver could accidentally drive into the river without, at least, some negligence.

Pfeifer is hoping to prove that Reyes wasn’t the one driving. The police investigation concluded that Reyes was driving because the driver’s seat was positioned far forward. Reyes was 5-foot-4, while Sams was 6-foot.

However, Reyes’ mother, Dora Gonzalez, stated in an affidavit that Sams would always drive when the two went somewhere and he would never move the seat back.

Pfeifer is also using Reyes’ postmortem toxicology report, which shows she had alcohol in her system, to prove she wasn’t driving. Gonzalez testified that her daughter would never drive if she had been drinking.

“If Crystal is a passenger,” he said, “she cannot be negligent.”

The city argued, though, that even if Sams was driving, it was Reyes’ vehicle and she had the right to control it.

Did threats precede 2014 drowning deaths?

http://www.wndu.com/content/news/Did-threats-preceede--408443705.html

The search for answers continues two years after a Michiana couple came up missing.

Some relatives remain convinced that foul play was involved. The belief persists despite the fact that the bodies of the two eventually turned up in the St. Joseph River: Both had drowned and both had no external injuries.

“I can’t say that I know who did it, but I have a good idea of who was involved in it,” said Tamika Brown, the sister of Nick Sams. “There were several threatening messages via text and via Facebook toward my brother.”

When asked if she knew who wanted to harm her brother, Brown replied: “According to the messages it seemed that there were people that just didn't want them together.”

Brown further claims that the victim’s vehicle went into the river nose first, but was in reverse when discovered.
 
From last month:

South Bend settles lawsuit over drowning death for $12,000

https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/publicsafety/south-bend-settles-lawsuit-over-drowning-death-for/article_b86ace64-a820-577c-b5fc-cfdca376755c.html

Although the settlement agreement says it admits no responsibility, the city of South Bend is paying $12,000 to a family that says the city was negligent in their daughter’s death.

On the night of Dec. 27, 2014, Chrystal Reyes and Nick Sams reportedly drove into the St. Joseph River at a boat ramp across from Veterans’ Memorial Park on Northside Boulevard. The couple were reported missing the next day, but the bodies of Reyes, 23, and Sams, 31, weren’t found until more than a month later.

Both deaths were ruled drownings and the autopsies found no evidence of additional trauma, so South Bend police closed the investigation.
 
I believe all deaths that were caused by unlit or ungated boat ramps should have this outcome. It is absolutely the responsibility of whoever owns the ramp to ensure no one can just drive down it. We see too many deaths like this :/
 

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